


Paint Me With Your Love Baby

by FireflySong



Series: Pride Month Writing Prompt Challenge 2020 [28]
Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff and Humor, Friendship/Love, Multi, Painting, Play Fighting, Polyamory, trying my hand at writing some climbing crash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:54:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25020481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireflySong/pseuds/FireflySong
Summary: Chris and Ashley are being rude and not very nice by refusing to help Josh with painting the parade float. So he decided to take matters into his own hands.Written for Day 28: Parade of the Pride Month Writing Prompt Challenge over on tumblr.
Relationships: Ashley Brown/Chris Hartley/Josh Washington
Series: Pride Month Writing Prompt Challenge 2020 [28]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1770988
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Paint Me With Your Love Baby

**Author's Note:**

> welp. almost at the end here folks. now, before you get into this, i need to let you know that i can't multiship. i just cant. my process tends to be that i get into a new game, or show, or book, or whatever, and i hyperfixate on one particular ship and feel pretty indifferent to any other pairings. and yet, theres something about josh/chris/ash that i just find cute and sweet anyways. its certainly no otp for me (though if i continue to write for them, it might well turn into one...), but its leagues above what I feel for literally another other ship that isn't chrashley. so just take this and enjoy!
> 
> you can find me on tumblr at love-fireflysong if you feel so inclined!

“So explain to me again why all three of us need to be here?”

Josh turned to regard Chris with confused look, paint brush held high in his one hand and a bucket of paint in the other. “Isn’t it obvious?”

Chris didn’t even bother to look up from his phone where he was sitting nearby, still intent on whatever game it was that he was playing. “Not really, no. So let’s go through the list of people here, shall we? We have me: extremely funny and technologically minded Chris Hartley. Our resident bookworm: smart, literary Ashley Brown.” He still didn’t look up from his phone as he made a nod towards Ash, who currently had her arms wrapped around his neck loosely as she leaned over his shoulder to watch the screen as well, and gave a little wave in acknowledgement. He made a grimace as he died or failed or did something wrong, though it lightened considerably when she gave his cheek a kiss in sympathy before continuing. “And finally, we have you. Josh Washington: son of a movie mogul, and the sarcastic, artistic asshole to complete our threesome.

“Now I wonder, which of the three of us is better suited to decorating a parade float?”

Josh rolled his eyes good-naturedly and returned to painting the float in question. “Ignoring the fact that you’ve already got plans for us tonight clearly," he knew without looking that Chris was sending him a withering glare and middle finger, and probably hadn't even bothered to pause his game to do so, " _I_ think that if we put our minds together, we could create a pretty bitchin’ float. But I really brought you guys over here for moral support. And gotta be honest, not exactly doing a stellar job right now guys.”

“Yeah. Woo. Go Josh go. Sis boom rah.”

“Josh, Josh, he’s our man. If he can’t do it, blah blah blah.”

He couldn’t help the snickers that came out that at the _extremely_ flatly delivered ‘cheers’ from the other two. “Wow, thanks. Really feeling the support now!”

“Glad to help.”

“That’s what we’re here for.”

Josh stuck his brush into the bucket of green paint and made a thick brushstroke against the cheap plywood base. “I mean, if you two chipped in and helped out on painting this thing, we could get out of here earlier and go grab a bite to eat and watch a show or something.”

“Oh, so this isn’t the romantic date we were promised tonight? Bummer.”

Ash shrugged apologetically. “New jacket, sorry."

Chris was much more blatant and unapologetic about his disinterest. “Allergic to paint.”

Ash didn’t even turn to look at Chris when she removed one of her arms from around his neck to smack him on the side of his head, and returning her arm to its original position.

“Nonononono! Oh come on, Ash! You just got me killed. I was so close too!”

“Too bad, so sad. Anyway, you can’t be allergic to paint.”

“And how can you know this for certain? Have you _ever_ seen me paint anything, Ash? Ever?” He didn’t give her time to say anything back as he looked at her as though that proved his point. “Exactly.”

Well now, this wasn’t an opportunity that Josh was just going to leave alone. ‘Let sleeping dogs lie’ his ass. Where was the fun in that? Much more fun when they were up and about playing in his opinion. Instead, he dipped his brush back into the paint and it emerged with a thick glob of wet paint, dripping dark green across the floor as he walked towards them. He didn’t even have to be sneaky about it, both had become too absorbed into the game to even notice him.

“I think I saw a power up a little ways back.”

“Really? Oh shit, thanks Ash—”

Anything else Chris would have said was lost as that was the moment Josh pounced, wiping a messy green stripe across Chris’s face, but trying to be careful and avoid the glasses on his face. He didn’t really succeed, leaving one lens almost completely covered in paint and splashing drops of paint everywhere as he did so, especially onto Ash whose head had been right next to his.

“Dude! What the fuck?!” Chris squawked. 

“New jacket! New jacket!” Ashley squealed. Well, at least one of them had been serious, it still didn’t stop him from leaving a large mark on her forehead to drip down her nose.

Everything devolved into chaos from there. Soon, all three of them were tumbling around on the cement floor of the room, trying hard to fight back as specks of paint went flying everywhere around them. Chris’s phone and the float forgotten as they all fought for control of the brush.

Eventually, it was Josh’s loss in the end. It had been two against one after all, and Ash emerged triumphantly with the brush in hand and covering every spare part of him she could in what little paint there was remaining while Chris held him down. The three of them were now decorated in a wide assortment of splatters, stripes, and splotches of green paint—Ash’s new jacket included—and all of them were giggling helplessly as they collapsed against each other in a large, paint-covered dog pile.

Slowly, the giggles began to lessen and they all sat back up, Josh in the middle and his arms slung around their shoulders and necks to hold them close in an affectionate headlock. He turned to each of them and gave them each a wet, sloppy kiss on the areas of their cheeks that were relatively free of any paint. He still made a face though, parts of his lips now bright green. It was all non-toxic of course, but that didn’t mean it tasted great.

Ash returned the kiss on a spot by his eye and while Chris didn’t return one right away, Josh wasn’t too upset about it. He was trying frantically to find a paint free area on his shirt to clean his glasses off of paint after all. Eventually, he did manage to clean his glasses to some form of acceptableness, though there was still a bright green smear across the lens, just much more transparent. He did return the kiss eventually though, one just as messy on the corner of Josh’s lips.

“Well,” Josh said eventually, “you two got no reason to not help me out with the painting now. I mean, you’re both just as covered in paint as me, and Chris hasn’t broken out into hives—”

“Yet.”

“—though I’m sure if he does, I think that both of us would be willing to kiss it better. Right, Ash?”

She scoffed with a fond smile. “That’s not really how you deal with hives.”

Chris was the first to stand up. “I mean, I don’t have any issues with this plan if you do.” He put out his hand to help Ash up, and she accepted it easily.

Josh though, rolled his eyes, even as he accepted both of the hands that Chris and Ash offered right away. “Oh, I see how it is. Helping up Ash first, I can tell who your favourite in this relationship is.”

“Well I mean, _she_ wasn’t the one to try and blind me with paint earlier.”

Josh shrugged as he was waved his hand dismissively. “Semantics.” He wasted no time in throwing his arms back over their shoulders, beaming as they returned the gesture by each wrapping an arm around his back and waist, and they walked back to the only partially painted float. “I am serious though. We can get this stupid thing painted in no time, and then we’ll grab something to eat, maybe work on putting Cochise's plan into action. Netflix and chill perhaps?” He punctuated the sentence with an overly exaggerated waggle of the eyebrows to Chris.

Chris groaned, though he didn't try to disguise the smile growing. "That wasn't what I meant by threesome and you know it."

Ashley shook her head, the dark green paint in her red hair contrasting nicely and bringing images of Christmas decorations to mind. “No way. I demand a shower first. So until then, I am placing all date night plans on hold. And you're paying for the dry cleaning for my jacket.”

Chris nodded in agreement even as he took the brush Josh handed him. “Exactly. Plus, if I can’t clean the paint off of these things you owe me a new pair.”

“Fine, fine! God, what an entitled pair you are. Is this what it’s like to be a sugar daddy? I feel like this is what it’s like to be a sugar daddy.”

While the shove that Chris and Ash gave him was probably completely deserved, them then threatening to dump the paint over his head probably wasn’t.


End file.
